PC Pro October 2020

ANOTHER MONTH, ANOTHER ransomware attack. Another month, another cloud-based service that doesn’t work for days. Another month, another reason for me to be convinced that we’re sleepwalking into a “computer says no” future if we insist on dumbing down our devices in return for the so-called convenience of the cloud. Consider the recent ransomware attack on Garmin. As I write this, my Garmin Connect app still won’t allow me to upload activities, with one message telling me that it’s due to “maintenance” and a second reporting “an outage”. It’s been like that for five days. Now, I don’t care a jot in the short term because I do the exercise for myself, not for Garmin’s gratification, but I like to have long-term records of where I’ve run and in what times. What…

Lee Grant Much to his wife’s disappointment, Lee doesn’t really look like the character on the front cover, but he does share 67 tricks of his trade on p26 Nicole Kobie Is facial-recognition tech a valuable aid for the police or a flawed tool that should be suspended from active duty? Nicole speaks to the experts from p126 Darien Graham-Smith It’s been a testing month for Darien, who puts 11 business laptops through their paces from p76 and measures up BT’s Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi on p60 Steve Cassidy While Barry explains how to bulletproof your broadband on p32, Steve explains what’s been eating all our lockdown bandwidth from p122…

The UK’s decision to ban Huawei equipment from 5G infrastructure – and potentially other networks – could lead to British consumers picking up the tab for £2 billion of additional costs. Under political pressure from the US in its trade war with the Chinese government, which many believe holds too much sway over Huawei, the UK government confirmed that networks will be barred from buying and installing 5G equipment from January next year. Existing Huawei equipment will have to be removed by 2027, but the uncertainty faced in sourcing new suppliers, at a higher cost, will hamper the 5G rollout and could increase prices for consumers. “This will be a major headache for most, if not all, of the telcos,” said Paulo Pescatore, founder of research firm PP Foresight. “While there are other…

UK companies are facing a data-handling headache following changes to the way that the European Union deals with data transfers to non-member countries. In a critical judgement that will alarm companies dealing with personal data transfers, the European Court of Justice judgement ended the “Privacy Shield” data transfer agreement that allowed some 5,300 companies to share data between the EU and US without additional controls. Privacy Shield was supposed to hold US companies to a higher standard than normal in order to protect Europeans’ data, but was struck down because US laws do not protect Europeans from widespread US government snooping. Privacy lawyers believe that the UK could fall into the same sin bin once it leaves the EU. “The judgement will certainly give the UK government a headache over adequacy if the…

Given their scale, it’s no urprise that tech giants ave serious internal security teams draw from security forces. The seriousness with which big tech companies pursue their internal security goals is highlighted by the track records of recruits to the positions that oversee internal investigations. Joseph Vincent, to pick one such professional at random, is Electronic Arts’ head of global intelligence, investigation and incident management. He began his career as a police sergeant with the US Department of Defense, moving to a position as a special agent with the Department of Justice, before spending 11 years with the Department of Homeland Security. On leaving public office, he moved to Google to lead up internal investigations, before joining EA. Clearly this type of employee takes their role seriously, and while it might seem…

Everyone wants to work for the tech giants; it’s all table tennis, free gourmet meals and a beautiful work environment, after all. But what happens when a sense of propriety puts you at odds with the bosses? Examples from several tech giants suggest the fluffy utopia falls apart quickly if workers stray from the company line. Take the recent case of eBay executives charged over an alleged campaign that targeted two bloggers with an ostensibly vindictive series of attacks that had echoes of mafia vendettas. All apparently for writing a critical article in a low-key newsletter. According to court documents from the case, six eBay executives seemingly orchestrated a campaign that allegedly included online and offline stalking, as well as organising a slew of outlandish deliveries to the couple’s home, including a…